Update on the Choose to Save /ASEC Web Site October 2007

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1 Update on the Choose to Save /ASEC Web Site October 2007 In 2005, we completed a major reworking of the Choose to Save and ASEC web pages by combining the two, reducing content redundancy, and creating nine major links on the main page, Situated at the top of the Choose to Save home page are links to seven of the most utilized categories of content on the Web site: Brochures, Calculators, PSAs, Resources, Media, Savings Tips, and ASEC. Along the right hand side of the site are links to Research & Surveys and the most important component of the site, the Ballpark E$timate. Overall, traffic to the Choose to Save Web site and ASEC page continues to be strong Total Monthly Viewers and Visitors Annual Average Choose-to-Save 170,069 28, ,042 37, ,053 32,561 84,381 14, ,628 19, ,960 16,996 ASEC 72,176 12, ,286 10,024 84,754 9,417 58,970 9,828 99,126 8,261 66,630 7,403 Brochures All of ASEC s brochures are posted on the Web site. We are currently in the process of updating all of the numbers and legal information contained in these brochures, with a target completion date of the end of October Each brochure will be reviewed on an annual basis, ensuring that all of the information is up-to-date. Brochures usage has been strong since tracking began in mid-2005: ,799 2,967 15,429 2, ,501 3,208 33,339 2, ,288 2,365 18,074 2,008

2 On an individual basis, the most popular Choose to Save publications, aside from the Ballpark E$timate, continue to be Save for Your Future (both English and Spanish versions), The Magic of Compounding, and Its Never too Late The statistics below represent the number of downloads per publication for the indicated year Total Monthly Brochure Name Annual Average Save for Your Future 8,753 1,459 17,816 1,485 9,302 1,034 Save for Your Future (Spanish) 1, , , The Magic of Compounding 6,308 1,051 12,823 1,069 6, It s Never Too Late to Save 3, , , Just Starting Out 3, , , Why Open an IRA? a a 5, , Maximizing Your Company Savings Plan 1, , ,048 (est.) 228 Saving for Your Family's Future 3, , , Save for Your Future (English tearout) 1, , , Save for Your Future (Spanish tearout) , How Do I Get There from Here? a a a a a a The Power to Choose a a a a a a a Number unavailable because the publication did not fall within the Top 20 most downloaded files for the year. Our web provider, Matrix, only tracks the Top 20 most downloaded files because by that point the numbers are much smaller and statistically insignificant. Calculators We completely revamped the Calculators page on the Choose to Save Web site during Summer While most of the subject headings remain, we dropped all calculators that had been previously posted to the web page. Calculators currently posted on the site must meet the following criteria: 1. There is no charge for individuals to utilize them. 2. The organization whose Web site the calculator is located on does not market a product. The Calculator page is a very popular component of the Choose-to-Save Web site ,016 19,836 95,489 15, ,837 25, ,931 20, ,553 21, ,753 16,973

3 Public Service Announcements (PSAs) The Public Service Announcement (PSA) page on the site was completely revamped as well during Summer New features on the site include: The PSAs page now appears as a pop up. All 80 of the PSAs, as well as the three educational segments Mission Retirement, The Savings Game, and Happily Ever After, all appear on the site in their entirety. The PSAs and educational segments utilize streaming technology. Text for the audio portion of each PSA and educational segment is now available. Each educational segment is downloadable as a Podcast. In October, 2007, Savingsman episodes 1, 2, and 4 were nominated collectively for the Local PSA Category with the National Emmy Association. We do not track the downloads for individual PSAs on the site because we want to measure how much traffic the PSAs are getting as a whole, as there are so many PSAs and educational programs posted. Additionally, because the PSAs are streaming, instead of being downloaded, it would be very difficult to measure which of the 80 individual PSAs are being downloaded on a monthly and yearly basis. Traffic to the site continues to increase as more PSAs and educational segments are posted, such as Savingsman : ,296 1,883 10,156 1, ,230 1,936 19,903 1, ,921 1,436 11,921 1,325 PSA On-Line Survey In the Summer of 2007, ASEC staff created a survey to gather feedback from visitors to the PSAs. In the survey we ask individuals how many PSAs they viewed, whether the person found the PSAs motivating or depressing, was the person motivated to complete the Ballpark Estimate, and we ask them to rank the overall experience. The survey went live on September 28 th. Some preliminary results are: How would you characterize the tone of the PSAs? Motivating 57%

4 Depressing 0% A clear message 43% Not a clear message 0% Were you motivated to complete the Ballpark E$timate? Yes 72% No 28% If yes, what specifically motivated you to complete the Ballpark E$timate? Want to set a savings goal 40% Desire to know if I am saving enough 60% If no, why don t you plan to complete the Ballpark E$timate? Don t want to get depressed 33% I know I am already doing enough 33% On a scale of 1-5 (1=poor and 5=excellent) how would you rate your overall PSA viewing experience? Average score 3.9 of seven responses. What issues should future PSAs address? Auto-enrollment Issues faced by college students Build an emergency fund What villains do you suggest we develop? Similar to Credit Card Guy Poverty in old age Fee Man Resources EBRI s Librarian, Martha Bobbino, MLS, maintains the content of this page. Two formats are utilized on the Resources page-the first consists of subject categories for individuals who want to browse the content, while the second is an alphabetical listing of Web sites to be utilized by those individuals who already know the name of the site they want to visit. All of the links on the page are checked twice a year, in January and in June, to ensure they are fresh. Traffic continues to flow to the Resources page: ,166 2,861 14,991 2, ,287 3,357 34,509 2, ,214 2,580 19,983 2,220

5 Savings Tips Much consolidation has taken place on this page. The amount of redundant content that had been on the page was greatly reduced, instead replaced with more on target subject headlines. We recently granted permission to Workplace Options (a provider of services designed to help client company s employees balance work and family demands) to post the savings tips to their client web service and print single pages on an as needed basis. Tens of thousands of visitors each year continue to utilize the educational and valuable savings tips on our Web site: ,121 5,854 26,430 4, ,096 6,758 60,806 5, ,706 6,412 41,382 4,598 Research & Surveys This section of the site was revamped in Spring 2006 to serve as a guide to EBRI research on retirement and savings. Three notable features of the page are: The page consists of links to the five vehicles of EBRI research: Issue Briefs, Notes, Fast Facts, Surveys, and the Databook. The three most recently released publications, along with a brief description of each recent release, are located on the Research & Surveys homepage. A link to past EBRI research, listed chronologically, is also provided. The date the section was last updated is located next to the title heading of each section. The number of individuals that have utilized the Research & Surveys tool on the Choose to Save Web site has been increasing. Already this year, usage of this resource has surpassed the 2006 numbers: , , , ,

6 Ballpark E$timate A Spanish version of the Ballpark E$timate homepage was added to the Choose to Save Web site in Fall Through the efforts of Elisabeth Buser and Luis Alonso of EBRI/ASEC, the entire Ballpark E$timate was translated into Spanish and given its own web page on the site. This page can be accessed directly from the Choose to Save homepage through a link in the upper right hand corner of or by visiting Both an Interactive and Non-Interactive version of the Ballpark are available to serve as a valuable resource to all Spanish speakers. Traffic to the English Interactive and Non-Interactive versions of the Ballpark continues to be at extremely high levels: Total Monthly Viewers and Visitors Annual Average Interactive Ballpark Estimate (English) 187,066 31, ,928 41, ,082 37, ,300 22, ,232 28, ,047 25,450 Interactive Ballpark Estimate (Spanish) a a a a a a a a a a a a Number of Downloads Non-Interactive (English) 25,618 4,270 70,923 5,910 31,714 3,524 Non-Interactive (Spanish) , , a Number unavailable because the publication did not fall within the Top 100 most visited pages for the year. Our web provider, Matrix, only tracks the Top 100 most visited pages because by that point the numbers are much smaller and statistically insignificant data is for June through December (6 months) Web site Usage Statistics/Tracking Methods All of the above statistics come from Matrix. We are exploring Google Analytics as an alternative source for web site tracking. While each resource is valuable in its own right, each does have its strengths and weaknesses. Google Analytics Strengths: It is excellent for unique tracking, such as through map overlays that track visitors by region, state, or city level, or through languages. The ability to set up individual goals. We track the number of Ballpark downloads, PSA views, usage of the Spanish Ballpark, etc. Individual alerts ( s) can be set up so that we can easily monitor specific tracking information from the site. For example, we have set up the alerts function so that the Spanish Ballpark E$timate, Resources page, Choose to Save PSAs, and Ballpark E$timate are ed to us on a monthly basis.

7 Greater number of ways to view information, such as by searching by keyword or URL, viewing every important piece of tracking information (deemed important by us) on the Dashboard (Choose-to-Save home page for Google Analytics), and ability to view very specified paths that visitors take through the site. Numbers updated daily. Weaknesses: Tracks only those users who use Java enabled browsers, so many of the usage numbers given by Google are much lower than the number who actually view each page and download each file on the site. At the same time, many of the figures reported are much higher than the Matrix numbers and are often contradictory to other similar statistics on the site because of tracking methods employed by Google. (As you will note below, the numbers vary they are either much bigger or much smaller than the Matrix numbers.) The amount of data and methods used to report the tracking statistics are extremely confusing and often contradictory, such as the navigation URLs and Content Drilldown feature. Has not been available to track site usage for very long, so long term trends cannot currently be monitored through Google. Traffic reports listed by URL and by name are completely different (should be the same). Matrix Strengths: Much more in-depth, specific, and clarified information that cover the basic statistics that are of the utmost importance such as the number of visitors, views to the site per month, or the number of downloads of a certain file. (While Google may also track this information and does contain very specific information as well, the information available on the Matrix site is much easier to use). Able to track all types of browsers. Matrix has been tracking information for EBRI since mid-june 2005, so we have two additional years of information/tracking patterns/etc. at our disposal. Data is much more accurate on the whole. Easier to understand Weaknesses: Updated monthly (not daily). Less information available on the type of visitor to the site (ex: their location, language, etc.) Overall, though Matrix and Google Analytics data are quite similar, we use Matrix data for our statistics because it is much more thorough and accurate. With the Google Analytics data we are able to get a much more specified picture of what data is being utilized on the site, as you can narrow down different data categories until you reach whatever statistic you are searching for. Google Analytics data tends to produce more fascinating categories than Matrix, but overall Matrix s data is more accurate, detailed and easier to understand.

8 Comparison of Matrix to Google Analytics September 2007 Matrix Google Viewers of and Visitors to both Web sites Choose-to-Save 25,065 17,139 13,777 a ASEC 7,927 4,666 6,383 a Brochures 1,857 2,313 1,539 a Calculators 1, ,298 a PSAs 1, ,147 a Resources 2,036 1,500 1,817 a Savings Tips 5,203 7,228 3,850 a Research and Surveys a Ballpark Estimate - English 26,576 33,821 18,587 a Ballpark Estimate - Spanish b 60 b a a Number unavailable because Google Analytics does not track the number of visits to each of the individual page links, only for b Number unavailable because the publication did not fall within the Top 100 most visited pages for the year. Our web provider, Matrix, only tracks the Top 100 most visited pages because by that point the numbers are much smaller and statistically insignificant.